(Part 16 of 46 in series, Level 52 countdown)
Oof, slow and tired this morning. Too much food this weekend o_O Tomorrow shall be a long walk to/from our town’s little cafe for lunch
31 — Trail run
Author: Craig Constantine
Priorities
Having priorities isn’t enough for me to end up sane. I’ve overcome the naive urge to line up everything into a single-file queue; That’s not how life actually works. Leaning into parallel-ism is the way. Social engagements bubble up on their own, and I lean into those whenever I can. Maintenance and administrivia need to be regimented and so I’ve process-ified everything so the important but not-urgent things get attended to. One must have the mental space—the ability to sit with one’s thoughts—to really think about life.
At the individual level, it is not enough to work on good ideas. You must only work on the best ideas. It is not enough to ask “is this good” you must also ask “is there something better?” As painful as ruthless prioritization is, it is not as painful as failing to do it.
~ Andrew Bosworth from, Half Staffed is Unstaffed
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Unfortunately, prioritization stands upon the idea that “best” or “better” have meaning. I have no interest in being particularly disciplined at anything. (Setting aside various comments people make about how much I get done.) I have no interest in doing what’s “best”. I have a moral compass I’m comfortable with, and I enjoy creating things (like great conversations).
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Your real job
I tell my students, when you get these jobs that you have been so brilliantly trained for, just remember that your real job is that if you are free, you need to free somebody else. If you have some power, then your job is to empower somebody else.
~ Toni Morrison
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32 — Walking
(Part 15 of 46 in series, Level 52 countdown)
Active recovery day. Oof, pebble wrestling always pays off. Tomorrow: A loop of our usual trail run.
August 06, 2023 — #44
Reading time: About 5 minutes, 1100 words
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This issue is https://7forsunday.com/44
Graphic
I’ve been stumbling more over graphic depictions and graphic novels. There’s this fun book Out on the Wire by Jessica Abel which describes the storytelling secrets of the new masters of radio. I’ve read another graphic novel about finance and the visual element really brings the stories to life. (See Craig learn, sorry.) In hindsight, I don’t understand at all why this would have surprised me. I spent gobs of time reading comics like Calvin and Hobbes and Bloom County in book form and they’re graphic novels if you read the entire arc in one go.
Our thoughts are a composite process. We really do think with our entire bodies.
~ Alex Pavlotski from, Habit Change and the Embodied Mind | alexpavlotski
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Pavlotski is another example. I had a wonderful conversation, Ethnography, leadership, and trajectory, with him for the Movers Mindset podcast. He is probably best-known for his work visualizing Parkour, but there’s much more to his work than just the drawing portion. This is not just a guy who does parkour, who also happens to draw kewl cartoons.
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Perspective
Think lightly of yourself and deeply of the world.
~ Miyamoto Musashi
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33 — Bouldering
(Part 14 of 46 in series, Level 52 countdown)
Fun little session with just enough pebble wrestling to get a good workout. Tomorrow’s activity will be walking.
Truth
The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those that speak it.
~ George Orwell
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34 — Jump-rope and rail balance
(Part 13 of 46 in series, Level 52 countdown)
Circuits of jump-rope and rail balance, two wonderfully antagonistic activities; get all wound up jumping, then try to be calm and balance. Repeat. Tomorrow: We’re heading up to the local rocks to do a little bouldering.
You had me at trees
Trees often have my attention. I find myself thinking about the spot where a tree is standing. Whether its seed fell there, or someone planted it, that spot is it. The tree is simply going to stand there as the sun whips across the sky thousands of times. I imagine the tree turning its leaves quickly (in tree time) to catch what light it can during each flash overhead.
Intrigued by this unheard of species, Wang set out to see it for himself and to collect specimens, which he shared with colleagues. One of them was Hsen Hsu Hu. A diligent paleobotanist, he had read of Miki’s fossil discovery five years earlier. As soon as he saw the peculiar needle pattern, Hu recognized the “water fir” as a Metasequoia.
~ Maria Popova from, The Remarkable Story of the Dawn Redwood: How a Living Fossil Brought Humanity Together in the Middle of a World War – The Marginalian
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There’s a lot of interesting leaps in the story Popova shares. Across a war, across two cultures, but the vast time this tree has crossed is insane. We have fossils of this tree… and we still have the live tree. My mind boggles.
But mostly, Popova had my attention at trees.
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Ignorance
Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that ‘my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge’.
~ Isaac Asimov
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35 — Trail run
(Part 12 of 46 in series, Level 52 countdown)
Glorious cool weather at the moment. Fitbit thinks our pace was a whole minute faster; not sure about that, but it did feel faster. Tomorrow: circuits of jump rope and rail balance.
Silence
I like my human experience served up with a little silence and restraint. Silence makes experience go further and, when it does die, gives it that dignity common to a thing one had touched and not ravished.
~ Djuna Barnes
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36 — QM and walk
(Part 11 of 46 in series, Level 52 countdown)
Ha. Nearly forgot to post this. Little bit of quadrupedal work and a relaxed walk. Tomorrow will be a trail run.
Make the time
Nine years ago (journaling for the win!) I went from zero to rock-climbing in just a few weeks in preparation for a spontaneous, multi-week trip to Colorado. I was staring at my calendar leading up to the trip, and trying to imagine how I’d empty the weeks; how would I stop doing all these things that I do every day to make room for being away.
So I started chopping. This was the turning point where I started getting clear about what I was allowing into my life. First I figured out how to work ahead, or push off work—that’s the usual thing to do in preparation for going away. But then I unsubscribed from countless emails to avoid them piling up, then I unsubscribed from notifications from various services, then I entirely dropped services, and then I started getting intentional about what I was gathering to engage with.
How can I get more cultured / interested in things? I constantly feel I am missing out on conversations as I just don’t have any drive towards joining in. Everything looks meh.
~ Gavin Leech from, get hype
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All of my efforts to “make time” over the last nine years have made me realize that I clearly do not have the problem Leech is discussing. I have the other problem. I seem to already be naturally doing all the things he suggests. And I’ve no idea how to stop doing any of that stuff.
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Change
You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.
~ Buckminster Fuller
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37 — Running
(Part 9 of 46 in series, Level 52 countdown)
Running happened, slightly longer route; me still slow. Tomorrow we’re going to do some quadrupedal work at the ‘ol tennis courts, followed by a walk.
Honesty
Honesty always gets my attention. Not particularly someone who is honest to me, but someone who is honest with themselves.
~ Heath Ledger
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38 — Body-weight circuits
(Part 8 of 46 in series, Level 52 countdown)
Concrete, plus handy piece of pipe? Pushups, squats and hanging leg-raises circuits for 15 minutes. Tomorrow? Something different: more running. /s